HD 

6093 

.W664 

no.13 


WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY 


THE  EIGHT  HOURS  DAY 

AND 

REST  AT  NIGHT 


UPHELD 

BY  THE 

United  States  Supreme  Court 

n 


By  FLORENCE  KELLEY 
General  Secretary,  National  Consumers’  League 


(J>/ 


Women  in  Industry,  Series  No.  13 
May,  1916 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 


in  2016 


‘I 


https://archive.org/details/eighthoursdayres01kell 


S 


WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY 

THE  EIGHT  HOURS  DAY  AND  REST  AT  NIGHT 


Five  states  and  the  District  of  Columbia  have  by 
law  the  eight  hours  day  for  women  in  industry,  and  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  upheld 
them  in  so  doing*  by  sustaining  the  validity  of  the  Californiat 
Statute.  These  States  are  California,  Arizona,  Colorado,  Wash- 
ington and  W-yomin§T  y^^XA/'-CLciOU  . 

Five  other  States  have  established  by  law  a period  of  rest 
at  night.  These  are  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
Indiana  and  Nebraska.  The  New  York  law  has  been  upheld 
by  the  Court  of  Appeals — the  court  of  last  resort  of  the  State. t 
The  United  States  Supreme  Court  and  the  New  York 
Court  of  Appeals  are  known  by  the  American  people  to  be 
pre-eminently  conservative  bodies.  Yet  their  decisions  in 
regard  to  working  women  are  at  the  present  moment  far  in 
advance  of  the  legislation  of  the  States,  aside  from  the  ten 
mentioned  above. 

■Qh  Etour  those  States — almost  forty  in  number — whose  legis- 
lation lags  behind  the  decisions  of  these  two  courts,  the  line 
of  least  resistance  is  obviously  to  adopt  unchanged  the  Cali- 
fornia statute  establishing  the  eight  hours  day  and  the  New 
York  law  creating  a period  of  rest  at  night  from  lo  p.  m.  to 
6 a.  m.  For  the  cases  decided  favorably  have  arisen  out  of 
these  particular  measures,  and  States  which  may  henceforth 
adopt  them  will  know  in  advance  that  their  new  laws  will 
not  be  annulled  as  unconstitutional. 

*It  has  expressly  decided  that  even  pupil  nurses  in  training  in  hospitals 
may  enjoy  the  benefits  of  the  legal  eight  hours  day  as  provided  by  the 
California  law. 

tl915  Miller  vs.  Wilson,  236  U.  S.  373;  Bosley  vs.  McLaughlin,  236 
U.  S.  385. 

JNew  York  Acts  of  1913,  Chapter  83,  upheld  in  1915  People  vs. 
Schweinler  Press,  214  N.  Y.  395. 


ADVANTAGES  OF  SUCH  LAWS 


During  1917  the  legislatures  of  more  than  thirty  States 
will  be  in  session.  By  concerted  action  it  should  be  pos- 
sible to  obtain  in  these  States  fairly  uniform  protection  for 
women  and  girls  who  earn  their  own  living. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  overstate  the  advantages  which 
are  to  be  expected  from  the  nationwide  adoption  by  law  of  the 
eight  hours  day  with  rest  at  night  for  women  and  children. 

I. — Where  the  working  day  is  short,  the  workers  are  less 
predisposed  to  diseases  arising  from  fatigue.  They  are  cor- 
respondingly less  in  danger  of  being  out  of  work,  for  sickness 
is  in  turn  one  of  the  great  causes  of  unemployment. 

2.  — Accidents  have  diminished  conspicuously  wherever 
working  hours  have  been  reduced. 

3.  — They  have  better  opportunity  for  continuing  their  edu- 
cation out  of  working  hours.  Where  they  do  this  intelli- 
gently they  become  more  valuable  and  are  correspondingly 
less  likely  to  become  victims  of  unemploym^ent. 

4.  — A short  working  day  established  by  law  tends  auto- 
matically to  regularize  work.  The  interest  of  the  employer 
is  to  have  all  hands  continuously  active,  and  no  one  sitting 
idly  waiting  for  needles,  or  thread,  or  materials,  or  for 
machines  to  be  repaired.  Every  effort  is  bent  towards  having 
work  ready  for  every  hour  of  every  working  day  in  the  year. 
In  unregulated  industry,  on  the  contrary,  there  are  cruel  alter- 
nations of  idleness  and  overwork. 

5.  — For  married  women  wage-earners  it  is  especially  neces- 
sary to  have  the  working  day  short  and  work  regular.  For 
when  they  leave  their  workplace  it  is  to  cook,  sew,  and  clean 
at  home,  sometimes  even  to  care  for  the  sick. 


CAUTION! 


In  States  which  have  Industrial  Commissions  there  is  a 
tendency  to  give  the  Commission  discretion  to  lengthen  work- 
ing hours  for  seasonal  occupations,  or  in  case  of  breaks  in 
machinery.  This  should  be  vigorously  fought.  The  opposite 
provision  should  be  copied  from  the  Oregon  law,  if  any  devia- 
tion from  the  California  statute  is  permitted.  In  Oregon  the 
working  day  may  be  reasonably  shortened  in  the  more  exhaust- 
ing occupations  by  the  Commission,  but  in  no  case  lengthened 
beyond  ©igirt*  hours. 

10 

TEXT  OF  STATUTES 

To  facilitate  the  work  of  promoting  women’s  eight  hours 
laws,  the  text  of  the  two  statutes  follow'S ; 

California  Eight  Hours  Law 

“Section  i. — No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any 
manufacturing,  mechanical  or  mercantile  establish- 
ment, laundry,  hotel,  public  lodging  house,  apartment 
house,  hospital,  place  of  amusement  or  restaurant,  or 
telegraph  or  telephone  establishment  or  office,  or  by 
any  express  or  transportation  company  in  this  State 
more  than  eight  hours  during  any  one  day  or  more 
than  forty-eight  hours  in  one  week.  The  hours  of 
work  may  be  so  arranged  as  to  permit  the  employ- 
ment of  females  at  any  time  so  that  they  shall  not 
work  more  than  eight  hours  during  the  twenty-four 
hours  of  one  day,  or  forty-eight  hours  during  any  one 
week:  Provided,  however,  That  the  provisions  of 

this  section  in  relation  to  hours  of  employment  shall 
not  apply  to  nor  affect  the  harvesting,  curing,  canning 
or  drying  of  any  variety  of  perishable  fruit  or  vege- 
table, nor  to  graduate  nurses  in  hospitals.”  (Cali- 
fornia Acts  of  1911  as  amended  by  Chapter  352,  Acts 
of  1913O 

New  York  Law  Providing  for  Rest  at  Night 

“Sec.  93-b. — In  order  to  protect  the  health  and 
morals  of  females  em.ployed  in  factories  by  providing 
an  adequate  period  of  rest  at  night  no  woman  shall 


be  employed  or  permitted  to  work  in  any  factory  in 
this  State  before  six  o’clock  in  the  morning  or  after 
ten  o’clock  in  the  evening  of  any  day.”  (New  York 
Consolidated  Laws,  Sec.  93-b  added  by  Chapter  83, 
Acts  of  1913.) 

It  is  sometimes  argued  that  in  States  which  shorten 
women’s  working  hours  in  industry  and  assure  them  a fixed 
period  of  rest  at  night,  employers  are  at  a disadvantage  com- 
pared with  their  competitors  in  other  States.  This  fear  can 
be  removed  by  concerted,  simultaneous  effort  to  get  these 
indispensably  necessary  measures  enacted  in  the  largest  pos- 
sible number  of  States  in  1917. 


HAS  YOUR  STATE  THESE  LAWS,  OR  EITHER  OF 
THEM?  ARE  YOU  CONTENT? 


Organizations  which  undertake  to  promote  such 
measures  usually  need  information  and  practical  help 
in  drafting  bills  with  reference  to  existing  laws  and 
decisions,  in  wording  provisions  for  posting  working 
hours,  for  inspection,  prosecutions  and  penalties — 
for  all  those  items  which  make  labor  laws  workable. 
Such  information  may  be  had  on  application  to  the 
National  Consumers’  League,  289  Fourth  Avenue, 
New  York  City. 


NATIONAL  CONSUMERS’  LEAGUE 

GenErai,  Oeeices 

289  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York  City 
Telephone,  2907  Gramercy 

Honorary  President 

„ Cambridse.  Mass. 

Mr.  John  Graham  Brooks  

President 

Hon.  newton  D.  Baker,  Secretary  of  War Washington,  D.  C. 

Vice-Presidents 

New  York  City 

Mrs.  Frederick  Nathan  Chicago.  111. 

Miss  Jane  Addams  Portland.  Ore. 

Mrs.  M.  R.  Tru  . q. 

Miss  Myrta  L. 

rs;R.P.H:;  OateOue  KV; 

Mrs.  Samuel  S.  . enje  p ' ' Cal. 

Miss  Maud  Yopr  •90  f 


Mr.  G.  Herman' 
Mrs.  Percy  Ja(_ 
Mrs.  Florence 
Miss  Sidney  C 
Miss  Josephin 
Miss  Pauline, 
Miss  Louise  C 


President  Art— 
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Professor  J. 
Professor  H. _ 
Professor  S.  ' 
Professor  R.  _ 
Professor  Jai 
Rev.  John  A — 
President  Mi 
Dr.  Jessica  B. 


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